Auror Addiction
by The Queen Of Mischief
Summary: Hermione is assigned to take care of a bratty kid who is in danger because Voldemort has returned ! and to make matters worse, she's assigned a PARTNER. One she does NOT like... BxH of course! Enjoy! R&R!
1. The Beginning

**Chapter 1**

Hermione sat patiently in Moody's office. She recapped her life after Hogwarts. Nothing much, really, to recap, though. She had become an auror and had loads of exciting things to do since then. The end. So now, she sat in the office, wondering what assignment Moody had for her to tackle. She kind of hoped it was challenging. She loved challenges. She didn't mean to boast, of course. She genuinely did.

Just then, the door opened. She spun around, expecting to see her employer. Instead, a very flustered looking guy came in. With chalky white skin and inky black hair in a mess, he looked like he hadn't slept in months.

He cast her a glance before plonking down next to her. He ran a hand through his hair. "What's your name?" Hermione asked.

He just stared at her. "What?"

"Well, we're obviously going to be working together for whatever it is Moody wants us to do, so we had better know each other's names. I know you're from Slytherin, but I've never met you in person before."

"Blaise Zabini. You?" he asked.

"Hermione Granger." She smiled. Obviously, he had gotten over the Gryffindor-Slytherin grudge.

"_Granger_?" he asked incredulously.

Or not.

"Hermione, actually."

He muttered something inaudibly.

"Look, Blaise, I never said I wanted to be partnered up with some snooty Slytherin who thinks he's better than the rest of us, but here I am, and here _you _are. I'm pretty sure you feel the same way, but this is the way Moody wants it. And I know and respect Moody enough to know that he'd have a good reason to pair us up. So get over you disappointment of me being so _obviously_ inferior to you and your previous partners." This, she felt, was a rather high-flown speech and she felt pleased with herself.

Before Blaise could respond, the door flew open and was almost instantly slammed shut. They both faced Moody who harrumphed and went to his desk.

"Don't bicker like an old married couple!" he barked. They both flushed red. "I could hear you from outside."

"Sorry, sir." She muttered.

"Hmph. Okay, back to work. NOW! Okay. There's a kid. Has something important. Something very important. As you know, Voldemort is back. That old coward. Anyway, apparently, there is one more horocrux that no one knew about until recently. And this kid, owns it."

"Of her free will?" Blaise asked.

"Hell no. Voldemort has some connection with her that we're still working to find out and he stored it in a small inactive part of her soul. Voldermort will do anything to get it back. And when I say anything, I mean anything. It is up to you to guard her under any circumstances. I do not want you to leave her alone, even when she pees. Got it?"

"Er, sir, when you say she's a kid, how old is she exactly?"

"Thirteen."

"And you want me and Blaise to work together for this duration?"

"What do you think?"

"Right."

"The girl knows all about it and has agreed to let you two follow her around."

"Okay."

"Well? What're you waiting for? A cup of tea? Get out there! And don't let me down."

"Yes sir."

-

"Oh, hello there," said Hermione cheerily to the girl who was waiting at the counter with the receptionist.

"Whatever," the girl muttered and rolled her eyes.

Hermione ignored that and said "My name is Hermione Granger and this is Blaise Zabini. What's yours?"

When Blaise heard his name mentioned, he grinned and said "Hey,"

After that, the girl appeared to be swooning.

"Er, my name is… um, er, what were we talking about again? Oh, yeah, my name is Katy…" she stuttered.

"Are you alright?" asked Hermione, concerned.

The girl, glancing at Blaise, pulled Hermione down by her arm and whispered in her ear, "Is he yours? Where can I get one?" cheekily.

--

The girls' parents insisted that they came to her house the normal way, not just by apparition, as although the whole family was magical, they were also true Christians **(A/N I am not being anti-Christian or rude or anything here. It's just that some of my Christian friends dislike Harry Potter for this reason) **and did not like the whole witchcraft thing. So neither they nor their daughter wanted anything to do with magic.


	2. Pancakes and Snotty Girls

**Chapter 2**

That day passed fairly normally. Katy's parents asked questions about what they did and what had happened to their daughter and who they answered to.

Then, at night, the time to tell the aurors about their sleeping arrangements came.

"Okay, sorry about this, but as you can see, we live in an apartment (a very nice one, too,) and we have only one guest room."

That was enough to make both Hermione and Blaise to turn their heads slowly towards each other in horror and mortification.

"You mean…" Hermione trailed off faintly.

"The couch is occupied by our au pair, at the moment." Added in Mr. Greenly, Katy's dad.

"We have to…" Blaise began.

"Oh, no, no, not share one bed, for heaven's sake!" said Mrs. Greenly, laughing.

They both heaved sighs of relief. Hermione pressed a hand to her heart, as though she were about to faint.

"There are two beds, but you'll have to sleep in the same room." Said Mr. Greenly, gravely.

Katy giggled. "But mummy, daddy, they could get up to all kinds of naughty stuff." She said 'innocently'.

They both turned so red! They couldn't even look at each other!

"Now, now Katy dear, shh." Said Mrs. Greenly.

Annnnyway, soon enough it was 'bedtime'. The Greenly family were as strict to Hermione and Blaise about getting enough rest as they were to Katy.

In their rooms- or should I say _room _(writer: grins and winks suggestively; You: Shut up)- Blaise looked at Hermione.

Then, just when they sat in the bed, Blaise started undoing the buttons of his shirt.

Hermione stared at him in utter mortification. "What on Earth are you doing?"

He stared at her. "Why don't you make a wild guess?" he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

She stared at his upper body. It was just as pale and chalky as the rest of him.

"Would you stop ogling?"

"WHY ARE YOU TAKING OFF YOUR SHIRT!?" she cried.

"Jeesh." He muttered. "Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill."

"TAKING OFF YOUR SHIRT IN A ROOM WHICH WE ARE SUPPOSED TO SHARE IS NOT A MOUNTAIN??" she said, loudly, because she was very freaked out.

"Could you stop saying that so loudly again and again? They're going to get wrong ideas…"

Hermione began to blush profusely.

So did he, upon realizing what he'd just said.

--

As they lay in their beds, they chatted a bit. Hermione asked him about what he'd done after Hogwarts, and vice versa.

Apparently, Blaise had instantly started Auror training after Hogwarts, and had had no time to get involved in a relationship any more than business.

Hermione had done the same, although, with some reluctance, admitted that she had had one bad relationship, after which she had not wanted to get into another one. She had made her work her life.

They learnt a little bit about each other, like their hobby, favourite food, color, book, movie, etc. etc.

The next day, Hermione woke up in a relatively good mood. She looked around at the room she was in. the previous day, she had been somewhat grumpy and had not bothered to properly look around at the room she would be sharing with Blaise for the next God knows how many weeks.

Oh. Right. She remembered why she was grumpy. She would be working with Blaise. She tried not to dwell too much on the fact. Besides, she was in a nice room, with a cream carpet, matching curtains and beds with swirly patterns on them and a TV. What could be wrong about that? She got up and threw open the curtains.

She heard some inaudible mumbling from behind her. Then it became more audible. Blaise had taken three pillows and covered his head with them to block out the light.

"Hermi-i-i-ione…" he whined like a ten-year-old who didn't want to go to school/ "Make the light go away…"

Hermione giggled. He was still half asleep and had no idea where the 'light' was coming from.

"Rise and shine." She said in a singsong voice. Blaise ignored her, and just faced the other direction.

She tried a new tactic. "Hey, there's a parade of strippers outside!!"

Blaise almost jumped out the window in his hurry to see.

She crossed her arms, raised an eyebrow and stared at him. "Hmm." Was all she said.

"He-e-e-ey. You lied." He stuck out his tongue at her.

"Yeah, yeah." She grinned, unable to control herself.

He made his way back to the bed and fell into it, placing the pillow over his head.

"Very well. I shall just have to tell everyone in the house that you died in your sleep."

"Fine, fine. I'm getting up." He grumbled.

"Good."

He waved his hand at her, motioning for her to bugger off.

"You act like you're bloody five years old!" she exclaimed in astonishment.

"I'm five and a HALF!" he said indignantly.

She hid a smile.

--

"So, Hermione, what will you have for breakfast?" asked Katy's mom politely.

"Er, nothing. I don't usually have breakfast…" she blushed.

"But, you MUST have SOMETHING!"

"Ummm. I'll just get myself a coffee, thanks." She would be too embarrassed to ask her for it.

"We-e-ell. If you're sure." Mrs. Greenly said eventually. "What about you?" she turned her attention to Blaise.

"Um. I'm not really hungry…" he said with some hesitation.

"Has no one told you people that breakfast is the most important meal of the day?" she demanded. "That's it. You're having pancakes, both of you!" she decided.

So pancakes they had, and soon it was time for Katy to go to school.

"Promise you'll be nice to our friends?" asked her mother.

"Of course, mummy." Katy said innocently.

Once they stepped out the mahogany door, however, Katy stopped and faced the both of them and snarled "Okay, look, I don't want you to _babysit _me all day. So you don't talk to me. School is MY domain. I don't know you, you don't know me. Got it?"

Hermione and Blaise stared at her for a moment, wondering how such a sweet looking girl could be so rude. "Of course." Hermione said after a moment. Blaise nodded in agreement.

Once Katy whirled around and stomped off, Hermione looked at Blaise as if to say "this is going to be a long day…"

Blaise nodded, and gave her a tiny smile which she returned.


	3. School Night

**Chapter 3**

At school, Hermione and Blaise talked. They were bored. Since they were not allowed to leave Katy's side, they could not even go to the library.

Katy was very popular amongst her schoolmates. And she could lie quite convincingly. When asked by her friends who they were, she told some crap story about her dad being a cool, top notch spy who worked for the BI and was in trouble with diamond smugglers and these were her bodyguards which her dad, who was quite fantastically rich, hired for her to protect her from possible danger.

Right.

Hermione observed Katy that day. She was like any normal teen. She thought she was better than the rest of her friends and her confidence made people look up to her. However, there was some pain in her eyes that she tried to hide behind her vibrant personality. Perhaps… perhaps she had wanted to go to Hogwarts and her parents hadn't let her. She pondered this as she sat at the desk at the back of Katy's class.

Just then, a paper slid onto her desk. She looked up to see Blaise grinning at her from the table next to hers. She rolled her eyes at him and picked up the paper.

_So, how are you liking school, Granger? I'm dying. For Merlin's sake, who needs to know what a bloody rift valley or whatever is? I mean, really._

She replied:

_Merlin, Zabini, we are fully grown adults. Why are you passing notes? And if you have that sort of attitude towards rift valleys, I have no idea _

_how you topped Hogwarts, along with me of course, and became an auror. Hell must've finally frozen over._

She passed him back the paper and after reading it, he stuck his tongue out at her and proceeded to scribble back:

_How else are we supposed to communicate. Remember, the no talking rule? We might just get Her Majesty into trouble and she would fire us from our bodyguard positions. _

Next to the note there was a small stick figure of him on a noose. She giggled. The teacher snapped his head up and barked "Is there something you would like to share with the class?"

"No, sir," she replied meekly, turning beetroot red.

_He's just an old wank. Ignore him._

That was what Blaise wrote and passed to her after that.

She nodded in response, allowing herself a smile.

He smiled back, and realized how long it had been since he had last one that. Sure, he had grinned, smirked and snickered, but never _smiled._ He dismissed the thought with an inward shrug.

--

Later on, at home- as wrong as that sounds-, Blaise got ready for bed. So did Hermione. As wrong as that sounded.

They had had a normal dinner of pasta, but both Blaise and Hermione felt stuffed as they didn't normally eat so much.

Katy had once again, pulled off a miraculous transformation from bitch to angel in front of her parents. Hermione just shook her head 

incredulously, not able to believe that so sweet looking a girl could be the spawn of Satan on the inside. It was not right.

"Blaise?" she asked later that night in bed- NO, NOT THAT WAY-, uncertain if he was awake.

"Yes?" came his response.

"I'm sorry I was so mean in Hogwarts to you."

"Aw, Hermione, you weren't mean. You just… didn't talk to me. And… shot me glares whenever you got the chance. That's all."

He tried to sound comforting but he succeeded in making her feel worse than she already did. She had no idea what spurred on the sudden thoughts, but they were there and that was that.

"Really?"

"Hermione, if anyone should be feeling bad, it should be me. I was a complete ass in Hogwarts. I'm sorry too."

She smiled at him, and through the bluish moonlight, it could be seen clearly enough. "Thanks, Blaise."

He smiled back. "No problem."

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

She smiled to herself in the darkness.

"You know what, Granger?" he was addressing her by her last name as a friend, she knew that.

"What?"

"I think this is the beginning of a beautiful thing."

"Friendship. The line is -"

"Whatever." He said.


	4. Thrown Out

**Chapter 4**

The next few days proceeded in a similar fashion. Hermione and Blaise befriended each other and Katy was as mean as could be.

They didn't really care.

--

One day, when Katy was in the bathroom, and Blaise and Hermione were outside, they heard a scream. Hermione rushed in and Blaise pulled out his wand.

"Blaise! Get in here!"

Blaise cast a doubtful glance at the sign that said "Girls' Bathroom" but when Hermione screamed "Now!" her dashed in.

He saw with some horror that Hermione lay crumpled in a heap on the floor, twitching in pain. He crouched down next to her without a second thought and suddenly, Hermione stopped twitching. Her breathing cleared and she closed her eyed in relief. She was panting and dripping with sweat. She curled up and sighed.

"Hermione! What happened? Where did Katy go?" a deep part of him already knew the answers, though.

She unconsciously held his hand. She was still in shock and pain.

He gripped her hand back and hugged her. She uncurled and hugged him back. He knew that she just needed to calm down and she would be fine. She pulled away after a moment and said "They took her. The Death Eaters."

Blaise swore under his breath and said "I have to alert the parents immediately. You stay here and rest." He said firmly.

She nodded.

He stood up but doubled over again. Hermione was still gripping his hand.

"Er, Hermione?" he prompted, turning red.

She realized what she was doing and blushed even brighter red and muttered "Sorry," before letting go.

He rubbed his hand, which was red. "Jeesh, woman, you have some grip."

She had enough strength to whack him. But they both smiled.

She got up before he could leave the bathroom and said quickly "No, I'll come with you."

_She doesn't want to be alone, _he thought, smiling slightly. Then a smirk spread across his face "What, you scared that they'll come and get you if you don't have me to protect you?"

She made a face "You wish. I just think we should tell the parents together, that's all."

"Whatever you say." He said, smiling like she was some kind of retard.

She rolled her eyes and they went to the Greenly abode together.

--

"WHAT APPENED TO OUR DAUGHTER!?" screamed Mrs. Greenly when she heard what they had to say.

"We paid you bloody wizrds to PROTECT our precious peach! You can't just LET HER BE KIDNAPPED!"

"Mr. Greenly, we understand your predicament, -"

"I don't give a horse's behind if you UNDERSTAND or not. I'm calling the police. You people are too unreliable. It's your fault she got involved with these people in the first place."

"Please, Mrs. Greenly, give us a chance! We-"

"I've given you more chances than I can afford. GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" she wielded the rolling pin in her hand like it was a dangerous weapon. Well, in Hermione and Blaise's situation, it probably was.

"My baby. My poor, poor little baby…" said Mrs. Greenly, dramatically placing the back of her hand onto her forehead.

Mr. Greenly wielded the telephone. He dialed 911 and put it on speaker.

"Hello? Yes, I am calling to report a kidnapping."

"Yes, when did it happen?"

"Just now."

"Can you please state the name and age of the victim?"

"Katy Greenly, 13, my DAUGHTER."

"Yes sir. Have you any idea what they looked like, whether or not they were armed and the vehicle they got away in?"

Since Blaise and Hermione had provided all the details earlier, Mr. Greenly knew the answer to that question.

"They were wearing black robes, they had wands and they got away on brooms!" said Mr. Greenly idiotically.

Hermione and Blaise froze to see if the police would actually buy that story and heaved sighs of relief when the receptionist burst into laughter.

"Hey, Jeff!" she said, to some other guy. "You gotta hear this bullshit, man! This wank thinks wizards on broomsticks kidnapped his stupid kid! I bet he doesn't even have a kid!" there were more hysterical barks of laughter on the other line and Mr. Greenly hung up.

"Oh, Harold!" cried Mrs. Greenly. "What will we do?"

Both Hermione and Blaise rolled their eyes incredulously. It was like you're looking for your pet cat when it's just curled up at your feet. Not that Katy was the type of cat to lovingly curl up at someone's feet, but whatever.

"Er," Blaise began to prompt gently. "You could let us look for your daughter?"

"NO." said Mr. Greenly firmly.

"Oh, but _Harold, _dahling, we have to get Katy _back_!" bleated Mrs. Greenly.

"Fine, but I'll have you know I would rather have this done by _professionals._" He glared pointedly at the pair standing near him. "But no way in hell are you staying in _our _house. You've caused enough trouble as it is."

Hermione opened her mouth to give an indignant response, but Blaise's look silenced her.

"Yes sir," said Blaise. He joined the tips of his fingers together to form a steepled arch and pointed it towards the room door. "Now, if you would please step aside, we'll be on our way."

Mr. Greenly grunted like a laboring gorilla and moved to a side. Both Blaise and Hermione flicked their wands at the door and a second later, their bags came flying towards them, all packed and ready.

They exited the house hastily.

--

"Oh, _Harold," _mimicked Blaise in a falsetto, flicking his arms about once they were well out of earshot. "We _have _to get our _dahling _peachy honey bum _back_!"

"Oh, _fine, _but I'll have you know… I would rather risk my daughter's life for God knows how long to find a _professional_ who believes me, so we don't have to rely on these two hurdy-gurdy people!" she relied in a fake deep voice.

They both burst into laughter, then sobered after a second. "Where will we stay?" asked Hermione, quickly adding in "As wrong as that sounds,"

"I suppose we could get a hotel." He shrugged. "As wrong as _that _sounds."

She giggled. "Okay."

Soon enough, they checked into a hotel. The receptionist smiled knowingly and said "Just got together?"

Blaise and Hermione realized what she was hinting and their jaws dropped in horror. "NO!" they cried in unison.

"Ahhh, denial. You two were obviously made for each other. You look so CUTE together!" she squealed, being young enough to squeal and not sound retarded.

"We're not a couple! We are co-workers!"

"Sure, sure. Well, I have a very special suite just for you. In fact, it's the last room we _have_."

"Er, okay." They both thought 'it can't be that bad if it's a suite.'

When they went in, however, one room was a complete entertainment type thing. It had a flatscreen, foosball, beanbags, board games and the other room had things like a mini-kitchen, a bed and the bathrooms (yes, there were two. It's not unheard of, you know).

There was only ONE bed.

One.

Bed.

ONE.

Shit.


	5. Do I Like Him?

**Chapter 5**

"Shit." Said Blaise.

"Double shit."

"What are we gonna do?"

"I dunno."

"Hey, how 'bout we split the bed with magic!"

"Er, it's worth a shot."

So the bed was zapped, but the two separate beds were large enough to fit a large rat, at the most.

"Nice going, brainiac."

"I didn't see you coming up with any brilliant plans."

"Well. Still. Now what?"

"We join them together again, of course, unless you want to sleep on a bed the size of a handkerchief."

"Okay…"

The bed was soon one again.

"I have a better idea."

"What?"

"We split the bed."

"Er… Hermione? We already tried that, remember?"

"No, not with magic, with pillows!"

"Ummm."

"We just order like, a dozen pillows, and shove them in between us!"

"Okay. I suppose."

The pillows were brought up and the housekeeping lady said with a wink, "Someone's gonna be having fun tonight!"

Both their jaws dropped in horror, once again, and they turned to face each other slowly.

"You make an adorable couple!"

"So we've heard…" muttered Blaise sarcastically before thanking the hotel lady and closing the door.

"Why does _everyone _keep saying we're a cute couple?" asked Hermione.

"Why does everyone keep saying we're a couple?" asked Blaise in return. Hermione felt her cheeks grow hot again.

Soon enough, they were ready for bed and the pillows were shoved between their halves of the bed.

The alarm clock was on the side of the bed Blaise was sleeping on, and Hermione wanted to set it to six to have an early start, so she asked "Could you pass the alarm clock from your side of the- er, that side of the bed?" she corrected herself when she realized how screwed up 'your side of the bed' sounded.

Blaise, instead of smirking, as she expected him to, blushed and handed her the clock without a word.

They both went to sleep after a quick word of 'goodnight'.

--

The alarm clock rang the next morning. Hermione herself didn't feel like getting up to turn it off, or even to wake up, so she just groaned and covered her head with a pillow and snuggled up closer to Blaise.

Blaise, too, groaned and covered his head with another pillow and wrapped his arm around Hermione's waist.

They both realized what they were doing and jumped out of bed with a start.

"Merlin, Hermione, I am _so _sorry! It wasn't on purpose—please don't murder me. I'm too young to die!" he covered his face with his hands.

"Blaise." She said sharply, causing him to look up. "Nothing happened. We did not do what we just think we did. This never happened and we were never here. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Good." Said Hermione, grinning slightly at Blaise's mock-salute.

"Shall we?" he bowed theatrically, gesturing to the door, once they had showered and gotten ready to leave.

"Of course." She smiled and stepped out of the room, but not before accidentally catching a whiff of Blaise's wet and uncombed hair. It smelt like cinnamon! She thought.

"What are you smiling at?" inquired Blaise, once they'd exited the room.

Crap, she realized- too late- that she was smiling. To cover up, she said "Do you never comb your hair Zabini?"

"Uncombed is how the ladies like it," he quipped cheekily.

"Shut up!" but she grinned.

Inside, she thought, _uncombed _is _or would be how _I _liked it. If I liked him, anyways. Do I like him? No, probably not._

She shrugged away the thoughts, but for the rest of the day of work- turned out they were quite an efficient pair, and even found _where_ Katy was being held, but couldn't get her at the time for reasons I forget- that question kept popping into her head inopportunely.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"Hermione, there's something,"

"Hermione, I need to…"

"Hermione, babe," he shuddered at the last one.

"Hermione, I've been meaning to tell you something… no, no, no!"

Blaise was pacing back and forth in the empty hotel room. Hermione had gone to get some food.

He gave up eventually. How to tell a girl that he liked her? He'd never liked a girl like _that _before.

Suddenly, the door opened. He abruptly stopped pacing, sat on the bed and opened a conveniently placed book.

"Like Chinese?" asked Hermione, smiling, holding up a few white paper carton thingys.

Seeing Blaise's troubled expression, she became serious too. "What's wrong?"

"Um, er, uhhh, nothing??"

"Blaise."

"Yes?" he smiled as innocently as possible.

"You're an idiot."

"So I've been told."

She rolled her eyes, but did not pursue the topic. Blaise was hiding something. She would make it her priority to find out what it was. Wait, 

scratch that. She would make it her _second _priority to find out what it was. Her first was to eliminate the feelings she was having for him.

She was getting a bit muddled up with all her priorities, so she made a list on a serviette.

_Hermione's Priority List_

_Find Katy_

_Valiantly rescue her_

_Kill Voldemort (for good this time. Jeesh, that guy keeps coming back from the dead. He has more lives than a cat)_

_Stop getting in a muddle every time you see Blaise_

_Find out what Blaise was hiding from you_

_Talk to Harry and find out how he and Ginny are doing_

_Convince Ronald that he and I are friends and I want nothing more in our relationship. With me and Ronald, I mean. Not me and Blaise. Not that I want to pursue a relationship with Blaise. I mean, well Ron's been being kind of creepy recently, sending anonymous flowers and cards with the most ridiculous poems that would put any decent poet to shame and trying to disguise his handwriting by writing with his left hand and ending up with the handwriting of a dyslexic. Not that there was anything wrong with being dyslexic. _

She looked at numbers 4, 5, and 7 and shuddered.

Blaise, unfortunately, happened to glance at number 7 and read it from the fifth line onwards, fortunately having missed the previous ones.

"Flowers and poems, eh?" he asked. I could _hear _him grinning. "He sounds like quite a romantic. I never knew you and Weasel were an 

_item._ Planning on breaking up with him, are we now? Twill break his heart, I'm sure." He said the last line in a long British drawl like Shakespeare or someone.

She flamed.

_Urgent A/N Hey all, I know you're wondering 'what happened to this Katy character? Aren't they supposed to be rescuing her and thinking about their love lives later, or something? The truth is, all this while, they have been preparing to go to save her. Getting back up and ammo and stuff isn't quick work… So, yeah. Anyways, it's only been a _day.

--

They went round to the abandoned building Voldemort was using as his 'lair', temporarily, anyway.

On the way there…

"Blaise?"

"Mmm?"

"You're a Slytherin."

"That had been made obvious by all the Gryffinors I have ever had the misfortune of meeting." The smirk on his face told her that he was kidding.

"Well, this may seem kind of rude, but there's been something that's been nagging me ever since I met you."

"Yes?" he asked, curiously.

"Why are you on the good side?"

"What?"

"I mean, why aren't you like Draco and Crabbe and Goyle and the rest?"

"Well, the obvious variations in brain cells is one thing." He said. She giggled.

"But Hermione, is there really a good side? I mean, there are two sides to the world, but neither would think they're bad, or doing something wrong, despite what the other side might think. I'm sure Hitler didn't think the way he was killing people was wrong because he believed his reasons for doing what he did were valid. And who are we to argue? We can't stop people from having opinions. And mine is that I don't want to destroy every non-pureblood (at this point Hermione smiled as he didn't use the term 'half-blood' or 'mudblood') on this planet despite what house I may be in."

"Wow. That was very well put."

"Thank you." He smiled. "You know, Hermione, I'm going to let you in on a secret."

"Yes?"

"I always thought that the whole house idea is complete crap. It keeps people who are really similar to each other, like you and me, from being friends. If we had been friends from first year, wouldn't we be much closer?"

She nodded, almost breathless. She was blushing and smiling shyly at the same time. Was Blaise hinting that he wanted to be more than colleagues? That would be the day.

"Are you nervous?" he asked, just as they were about to sneak into the building.

She nodded, her heart thumping and blood pounding in her ears.

He gazed deep into her eyes with his own dark chocolatey brown ones and gave her a tiny smile before squeezing her hand in both of his. It was warm and instantly made her feel better.

"Don't be. We can do this, okay?"

She nodded, then did something she had repeatedly told herself not to: she kissed his cheek lightly. She was instantly overcome, like knocked off her feet, by this electric shock type thing, combined with his cinnamonny scent.

"Thanks Blaise," she said, feeling her cheeks get hot.

Apparently, she wasn't the only one. Blaise's chalky skin face had gone quite red with embarrassment.


	7. The Battle

**Chapter 7**

They silently entered the building, cautiously checking for any dangerous spells first.

Their hands were tightly gripping their wands.

Hermione eyed a closet of some sort and heard a thump inside. She slowly opened it and muffled a scream just in time. A corpse of a girl, quite similar to Katy, fell on her. It was partially disintegrated. She jumped back and bumped into Blaise. She covered her mouth with her hand and clutched his hand with the other. He looked equally horrified.

"Blaise…" she whispered, just to make sure he was still with her. Of course he was still with her, she knew that, but she just needed his reassurance. I mean, it's not every day you have a decomposed body fall on you.

"I'm here, Hermione," he said, even though his voice was kind of shaky. He held her hand, and wrapped his other around her shoulders for a brief moment in a half hug, before turning her around and leading her away from the body.

"Who do you think it was?" she asked after a while.

"My guess is that Voldemort kidnapped the wrong girl by accident and once he found out he had no use for her, he got rid of her."

She nodded.

Suddenly, they heard footsteps.

They hurried into another room and found themselves in a large chamber with a dome like top. They swung out the invisibility cloak yes the had one, every pair gets one when they're going out in the 

field. Didn't you guys read the handbook? : )- and draped it around themselves before going to a shadowy corner.

They hardly dared to breathe. The doors swung open, and a man strode in, cloaks billowing behind him.

He carried a bundle under his arm. It was kicking and screaming, obviously Katy.

He swung the girl around and snarled menacingly with teeth a filthy yellow shade.

"We can make this painless, eh love? You just have to be a good girl. Mind, it won't be painless for you, but it will for me." He cackled at this point.

"You filthy slimy ass! Let go of me NOW or I shall scream the place down. I'm warning you, your Lord Moldy Voldy is quite sound sensitive. I don't think he'd like if I screamed too much. Could attract attention, don't you think?" she snarled.

The Death Eater flinched a bit at that.

"And think about it, do you really want to spend the rest of your life being Moldy Voldy's slave? I wouldn't want that. I assure you, if you let me go, my parents will pay you enough to live the rest of you life on a tropical island resort in the middle of the Caribbean. D'you like that?"

Just then the distinct odor of rotting flesh wafted in. Voldemort.

The Death Eater snapped back to reality. "There will be no reasoning here, love." He licked his lips menacingly.

She looked green.

"Tie her up," breathed the voice of the shadowy figure which had loomed up behind them. "Death Eaters!" he gasped. Apparently, this was a command for all his minions to gather, which they promptly did. They were all dressed in the customary black death eater robe.

Hermione could feel Blaise breathing hard next to her. They were both scared.

She held his hand again. they dared not move too much for the fear of being sniffed out.

The Death Eaters gathered in a circle around Voldemort, who circled round the small, scared and tied up girl like a vulture.

Just as Voldemort drew his wand out, he froze. "Wait." He whispered. The Death Eaters stopped their chanting.

"There is impurity amongst us, friends," his voice was a low, dangerous hiss. Not a thing moved or twitched. Any move might be misinterpreted and no one wanted to die that night.

"There is impurity. I can smell… a mudblood." He stopped.

Hermione froze and slowly turned to face Blaise, who was looking at her. "It's all my fault…" she mouthed, her cheeks feeling damp. She was ruining the whole mission because she was… a mudblood.

She had spent all her years in Hogwarts, trying to prove that it didn't matter. And now she would die.

Blaise placed his hand behind her neck, pulled her to him, and gently kissed her. Just for a moment. But it was enough to electrify her and Blaise.

"It's not your fault. Promise." He breathed.

She just nodded as best she could.

Just then the cloak they were wearing flew off. They gasped. Voldemort stood there, in his entire nose-less ugliness, with his mouth twisted into a cruel smirk.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?"

The Death Eaters all laughed in unison. Voldemort was famous for this, they both knew. He toyed with his victims, taunted and tormented them, and finally put an end to their misery. This treatment would lat from an hour to even as long as a week, plenty of time to escape.

"Tie them up!" ordered Voldemort, which two Death Eaters promptly did with thick rope cords. Their wands were then confiscated.

"So, Zabini," he said, foully, casually flicking dirt from his fingernails, "I never thought you would join forces with this mudblood. And it looks like you're in love. Isn't that sweet?" the Death Eaters chorused in some ridiculous cooing/whistling sounds. Were they programmed to do that, or something? Voldemort smirked again, bringing his face close to Blaise's.

"Careful, I might bite," warned Blaise.

"I suppose you might." Smirked Voldemort, looking thoughtful.

"It's called toothpaste. Try it." Leered Blaise.

Voldemort made an animal sound before regaining his composure. "I suppose our little friends could stay, and watch the show, while I kill that little girl. But first, let me tell you what I'll do."

Here, the Death Eaters cackled.

"I could do without the chorus, thanks." Said Blaise.

Voldemort smiled evilly.

"If a horocrux is implanted into someone's soul, the way I have planted mine, then when the person dies, the soul and horocrux will reside in the heart as it has since the birth of the person till the soul is at peace. Then, it will escape and who knows where it will go. To avoid spending too much time, I will just carve out her heart and extract her soul."

"You know," remarked Blaise, "you should know by now that whenever the villain tells his victims something, they find a way to use it against him and escape?"

Voldemort smiled again, revealing his filthy teeth.

"Actually, this is rather clichéd. I would expect more from a self proclaimed ruler. Something more original?"

"I follow tradition… but this time, Zabini, I will prevail." He clenched a fist and held it up for emphasis "You will die, and I will rule the world!"

"Yea-a-ah. Sure, sure you will."

"Silence! Waste time I shall not! Especially not on fools such as yourselves."

I know you're all wondering 'what the hell happened to Hermione?' While Voldy and Blaise are having their friendly conversation, Hermione is pulling out a pocket knife which she always keeps with her and is surreptitiously untying the ropes that bound her and Blaise's hands together, before she would take out their _real _wands, which were safely stowed in their back pockets. Smart, eh? Voldy took the fake decoy ones. It's funny how sometimes, a villain might forget the simplest of tricks, like pepper spray! A handy tool.

She edged just a bit closer to Blaise and was able to untie his ropes.

Behind their backs, he brushed her hand ever so gently, not daring to look at her.

Suddenly, Hermione whipped out her wand and cried "Petrificus Totalus Omnis!"

Sure enough, all the Death Eaters froze, unable to move.

Voldemort, unfortunately, was not affected.

"You think that can _stop _me?" he asked incredulously. "Stupid mudblood."

Blaise pulled out his own wand and held it against Voldemort's neck, pressing it into his lower jaw part.

"Don't call her a mudblood." He snarled, in a tone she had never heard him use before.

"The simplest spells work best," she whispered to Blaise.

"Expelliarmus!"

Voldemort's wand flew out of his hand and landed a feet away.

"Accio," said Hermione, flicking her wand at Voldemort's and catching it as it flew to her.

"Do it." Blaise nodded at her.

She snapped the wand after uttering a quick spell with her own.

"NO!" screamed Voldemort. One of his horocrux's was gone.

"Torpeo!" cried a voice that was neither Blaise's, nor Hermione's. Moody! "It's the spell to make the horocrux in the girl inactive" he muttered.

Voldemort's face was turning to ash before their very eyes.

"Avada Kedavra!" said Moody, barking the word.

With a piercing scream, Voldemort fell into green smoke, finally dead.

"About bloody time that guy died." Grumbled Moody.

Hermione giggled.

"Um, hello? These ropes are so not gonna untie themselves, you know."

Hermione went over to help her afte rolling her eyes, and Blaise started to help Moody with the collection of the immobile Death Eaters.


	8. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

"So." Blaise said.

"So." Hermione said.

"You okay?" he was concerned.

"Yes, but my wrists are a little sore."

He held out his hand, indicating for her to show him her hands, which she did.

They were red and the skin was scraped. That Death Eater had tied her up harder than he needed to.

He ran his fingers over the skin there and looked up after a bit, dropping her hands.

"Hermione, we need to talk."

"I know."

"About something a man should never have to be forced to talk about: his feelings."

She giggled.

He smiled slightly then became serious once more. "I have been… harboring feelings for you recently."

"Ye-es?" she stifled a giggle. She wanted to hear more.

"Well," he looked considering. "I guess that's it. Oh, yes, and this:" he touched her shoulders with the tips of his fingers, leaned over and planted his lips on hers. This time, it was not a short kiss, it was pretty long. It was _gentle._

And this time, Hermione had a chance to respond. Which she did by wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing back.

They did this until Moody mumbled, "Get a room."

Then they broke off and they both smiled at each other before kissing again.

"You know, Hermione, I don't think I'll ever forget this day." He said honestly.

"You'd better not!" she grinned mischievously.

He rolled his eyes, smiling, and tousled her hair fondly.

She wrapped an arm around him, and they went home.


End file.
